Home » Latest Blogs » Stephen Fitz-Gerald's blog
» Heavy Woven Torque

Heavy Woven Torque

Stephen Fitz-Gerald - Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 3:27am
|

This is an eight strand weave,in stainless wire.
It's a good material for this design because even though the weave itself requires forging (with the acetylene torch)to make it tight,the final shaping of the WHOLE piece can be done by hand cold.
It's springy but tough.
Each finial is made up of 3 pieces ,each piece plug welded in order. this hides the welds and makes cleanup significantly easier.
The triskele symbols were hot punched ,then the discs were domed on the press before welding.Heavy Woven TorqueHeavy Woven Torque


» Stephen Fitz-Gerald's blog | add new comment
marilyn's picture

Very nice. Were you holding

marilyn - Monday, November 16, 2009 - 11:17am

Very nice. Were you holding the flame on the metal as you bent it or heating it and then bending it very quickly?


» reply
Stephen Fitz-Gerald's picture

Torque

Stephen Fitz-Gerald - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 12:20am

Stephen Fitz-Gerald
I'm using a very small flame to heat only at the bend of each strand. I pre-twisted the strands (cold) in pairs first.I weld the tips of two strands together,chuck it up in my heavy duty Milwaukee drill and put the other end (also welded together) into the vice. While holding tension away from the vice I start the drill going slowly making sure the twist does not double over on itself. I do this with four pairs. Then I weld the tips of the four pairs together and start the forging. Now the weave is basically like a fourstrand but stiffer because of the twists and requires heat to make it bend tight...Does this make sense Marilyn ?


» reply